matchday thread Inverness CT -V- FC Astra Giurgiu

[hislopsoffsideagain]

Probably echoing a lot of what's been said before, but here goes...

 

We were unlucky to lose that.  Our performance was excellent, especially considering our lack of competitive games.  The passing in the first 15 minutes was particularly impressive, and their goal was a huge blow because it came well against the run of play.

 

I wish fans would show more patience with the passing game.  They pass sideways to keep possession and to create space - it's a far better idea than punting hopeful long balls.

 

The individual performances:

Fon Williams - I imagine he'll be fine with a game or two under his belt, but he looked rusty and my first instinct was that he should have kept that free kick out

Meekings - looked like a centre-back playing out of position.  Defended well.  Was willing to get forward but offered nothing in attack

Warren - Excellent, hard to remember him putting a foot wrong.  My MOTM

Devine - Does look dodgy in possession on occasion but played well

Williams - Needs to work on his positioning when we're defending, but he was a great outlet.  Give him a few more months to learn the position and he'll do very well

Wedderburn - Looks like he ate one of the subs for his pre-match meal.  Slow and ponderous, but actually decent in possession and broke up play quite well. He could be very useful once he gets up to fitness

Draper - Not a great performance. Unnecessarily gave away the free kick they scored from.  Gave the ball away too cheaply and too often.  We probably only need one of him or Wedderburn for league games - who would you choose?

Tansey - After a bright start, he struggled to have much influence until he dropped deeper later in the game. His set-piece delivery was good

Doran - Looks like he's been eating salad all summer.  Always looking for the ball and generally used it well

Christie - It never quite came off for him in the final third, but his touch was good and he covered the whole pitch looking for the ball

Lopez - Good with his back to goal, but will he score many? Can't really be judged until he is fully fit.

 

 

[bdu98196]

Astra are no mugs and I think could easily hold their own in the SPFL, they came with a game plan of not to loose and sat in well - I do think that they have more to offer and can up their game. That said I think last years ICT team would have won that by a few goals.

Overall impressions

Williams - surprising inclusion, but I do wonder being an 'international' keeper if he is looking for game time heading towards the Euros, in which case has he accepted a lower wage to fit our structure in the basis he will play? Wasnt impressed overly with him, perfer we'd played Esson and got a younger loan keeper as back up.

Meekings on the right doesnt work, he doesnt press on enough down the wings

Danny Williams - he is our LB I'm sure but doesnt want to use his pace and skill to take on and pass the man, he will get better from that position though

Tansey - first half was totally ineffective, 2nd started to influence the game a bit more

Wedderburn - huge unit of a guy, but very immobile and clumsy, I'd have rather seen Polworth play or Tansey back in his natural position. This level is too high for this guy I think, or its too soon he isnt ready.

Lopez - poor service didnt help but he doesnt run deep or move a lot like Watkins or Mackay did and isnt strong like Ofere - he will need time but not sure where his strengths lie yet

I thought both Doran and Christie had a good game and tried to move it forward and take Astra on, Draper however had a bit of a howler last night with a few errors. Next wk will be tough, I think that Astra will be much better but we can be too, its not over or anywhere near it - I think we can score but its if we can remain solid at the back is my concern

[forresjags]

Thought we under achieved to be honest. Never really tested them or put them under sustained pressure including set pieces.  They came for the away goal and got it but offered very little else, looked ordinary and we gave them to much respect.

Bizarre playing 3 holding midfielders in the centre, not one got forward to support Lopez leaving him totally isolated.

MoM... Easily Ryan Christie covered every blade of grass, totally committed ,great performance.

Positives ... Still got 90 mins to turn it around, maybe suit us a little bit more on the counter attack.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

Good atmosphere tonight, hopefully the UEFA rep didn't hear the racist chanting though - if he did we deserve our punishment.

I was disgusted by the racist chants and if we are reported we could end up with a (deserved) hefty fine .

[Sir C the 3rd]

I thought the crowd was excellent, then they scored.  Totally against the run of play and it took the wind out of our sails.  We struggled to create a chance and when we did get into good positions we wasted it often. But in saying that, they were very well organised defensively.  If we can go at them again like that next week and have another weeks training under our belts we'll have a wee chance maybe, although I expect them to also be much better next week.

I didn't think their time wasting was that bad and I thought their diving would be a lot worse. Have a feeling it'll be diving and rolling about all over the place on Thursday though.  I also thought the referee was very good and one or two of our officials could learn off him!

[+Feb82000]

lot of fans standing on the stairs in the north  stand when they should have been in there seats stewards did not a thing about it

[Stirling Observer]

My goodness, people standing up, whatever next. I think we should enforce cages in stadiums to control the hordes of unruly scallywags

[bdu98196]

Sometimes I'm disppointed as a group we dont stand more, last years league cup final was great to all be standing as are Scotland games, on occasions like last night standing would have been apt.

[ICTRoughi]

Highlights from last night's game on STV sport website: 

http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/inverness/1324849-watch-highlights-as-inverness-ct-go-down-1-0-to-astra-on-european-debut/

[Joe DiMaggio]

lot of fans standing on the stairs in the north  stand when they should have been in there seats stewards did not a thing about it

Firstly well done the stewards for letting people enjoy themselves. Great job! 

Would you prefer stewards over telling everyone to sit down constantly? Were the people standing bothering you in any way? 

Edited July 17, 2015 by Joe DiMaggio

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

 I wish fans would show more patience with the passing game.  They pass sideways to keep possession and to create space - it's a far better idea than punting hopeful long balls.

Thats fine if there's movement ahead. If not, the opposition just compress the space and you end up either going back or long. 

Last night there wasn't enough movement up front. 

[Huisdean]

I think, with the players we had available, it was a decent performance last night from the team. With the injuries we have, not a lot of options for Yogi so although line up a surprise, probably not any real alternatives. I suspect some were also not fully fit both on the pitch and on the bench.Some surprising views on performances last night and as someone has already said, Warren was my MOM. Don't get all the praise for Ryan last night though. Sure he worked hard and covered all of the pitch but that was part of the problem. He needed to be closer to Lopez to support him and needs to learn to pass more often rather than run with the ball. He will learn but no way was he MOM. Wedderburn did okay for the most part and was not out of place while as many folk have said, Draper was poor last night and seemed way of the pace needed at this level.

[Renegade]

Not a particular fan of Tansey further forward.  Much prefer him sat in-front of the back four where he can dictate play a bit more.  I think in hindsight keeping him in his usual role and bringing Roberts in with Christie behind Lopez would've been better.

I'm quite optimistic about Wedderburn actually.  Granted he's not fully fit, but I do think there's a player in there.  

[Caley Mad In Berks]

Just got back down south.  That was a game that was there to be won.  Astra did not look that dangerous, but neither did we.  We had lots of possession but mainly side to side in the middle of the park.  Only Christie looked as if he had any imagination going forward.  Disappointed in Doran.

Of the new boys I thought Wederburn did OK.  Unimpressed with Fon Williams for the goal.  He was very indecisive in setting the wall and then didn't cover his near post adequately.  He made a couple of good stops later though.  I fall into the 'what had Esson done wrong' camp.  I realise we needed to bring in an experienced keeper with Brill seemingly going to be out for months, but I expected it would have been as back up to Esson, not the other way round.

Lopez looked slow, although with a decent touch, but clearly lacking the pace of Marley.  Roberts was anonymous in the 10 minutes he was on.

I assume Vincent and Tremarco were injured?  What about Dave the Rave? Although Meekings did OK, I much prefer Raven at RB with Meekings alongside Warren, who had his usual strong game.

Tansey MOM? What was that about?  I thought he was OK at best.  Draper far from his best.  Williams Ok, I like him better the more I see him.

My worry for next week, and indeed for the season is where the goals will come from.

Anyway, onwards and upwards.  Good luck to the team and our supporters over in Romania.  Sorry i can't be with you.

[lukemackay]

Thought we played well and held them to only having 1 real chance when they hit the post. Other than that they score a free kick and boom its 1-0 not much you can do about it.

Didn't rate Tansey in the advanced role. Think he's wasted there much better at dropping off and picking passes, And with his range of passing that's what we should be doing putting someone like Christie in the hole, as he finds pockets of space between the lines a lot better than Greg did last night. Not saying Greg was poor just felt we didn't play to his strengths.

Wedderburn I'm not too sure of. Could be a mighty frustrating player I thought he looked like a centre half playing in midfield. Draper wasn't good enough. A below or performance from him Imo. He's capable of much better and I think suffered playing alongside wedderburn.

The back 4 was pretty makeshift but solid. Ravens not fully fit so couldn't start him so meekings had to cover at right back, But warren and Devine were fine in there. Williams did ok for me aswell but he's at his best in centre midfield for me.

lopez did well probably not a lone striker but could be a good number 10. And Aaron and Ryan where our biggest goal threats from wide areas Doran worked the keeper well in the second half but should've done better with the other two he had one straight at the keeper in the first half and another wide in the second half. 

other than that subs came too late for me Roberts and Foran couldn't get into the game.

[KirkieRobRoy]

Would dissent from much of the above. Thought Astra looked highly professional and were quite happy to let us get on with the long passing movements that never reached the danger areas. After the goal (from a free kick after we cheaply lost possession after one of those long spells of passing) they became a lot more forward-going.

No point whingeing about the time-wasting or play-acting - this is Europe, get used to it, if we manage to get an advantage over there, I hope we do it too.

Main hopes are 1) with a competitive outing under our belt the team performance improves and 2) The incentive of a West Ham tie inspires them to greater efforts. In fact, would be worth shelling out for a few Brazilian players on a week's loan to get through for the WH tie.

[The Mantis]

I thought Astra were very well organised in defence and all our sideways passing came about because a) they pressed us all through the first half b) we had nobody with the skill to make a killer forward pass or take a risk at all.

dreadful challenge by Drapes with two more defenders on hand and Naelifts and I were predicting a decent strike from star man Budescu as our new goalie tried to organise the wall.

Second half they didn't press us so hard and let us have a lot of the ball as we didn't look likely to do much with it.

Somebody at the game, maybe Ymip, said to me at half time he thought they had an extra couple of gears. Difficult to say, no doubt we'll find out next week. I thought they were all physically very strong and often brushed off our players in the tackle using upper body.

as I saw it two of their players were booked late on for time wasting. A third took a dive in the box and the ref indicated this but failed to book him.

A club with a bit more European experience than us but when will we get another chance to gain more???

Christie MoM by a mile. The dirty tipsy b******s were the guys in the executive boxes who picked Tansey.

[Stirling Observer]

Lack of width was a bit problem, middle of the park was way to congested with Ryan, Aaron and Tansey on top of each other, would like to see some Aaron and maybe Roberts play as wingers in the second leg and run at them and get behind them, with Ryan in the middle

[old caley girl]

lot of fans standing on the stairs in the north  stand when they should have been in there seats stewards did not a thing about it

was glad to see such low key stewarding tbh. I'm not sure where the empty seats were either? Section E was packed. 

[CaleyD]

The "No Standing" rule is an SPFL thing....nothing in the UEFA regulations (not that I can find anyway) about having to be seated.

[closed]

Not so low key stewarding I witnessed. Can't tolerate people who think they are in the polis because they're wearing a yellow jacket. Can be a real spoiler...mind you so can our "sit down" brigade.

[The Mantis]

Not so low key stewarding I witnessed. Can't tolerate people who think they are in the polis because they're wearing a yellow jacket. Can be a real spoiler...mind you so can our "sit down" brigade.

Doubt if there'll be any 'sit down' brigade next week 

[noho]

I think Wedderburn might turn out to be a good purchase once he settles in. Would have liked to see him in their box when we were pressing them in the last 5-10 minutes, with the size of him he would have been an intimidating presence.

[RiG]

The club are a lot more tolerant of fans standing in Section E as this seems to be the unoffical signing section. It's been like that for at least two or three seasons now so hardly a new thing. 

[old caley girl]

The club are a lot more tolerant of fans standing in Section E as this seems to be the unoffical signing section. It's been like that for at least two or three seasons now so hardly a new thing. 

not sure I've ever seen them let so. Any folk start on the steps tho?